EA requesting formal offer at their office?

nelly_2

Why would anyone put an offer in if they cant afford it?

Jorgan_2

Yes, it is a common occurence. People go looking at property with no idea what thay can afford when it comes to the mortgage. They think that because somebody in work has bought a property of £x,000 they can afford the same.

AndrewSmith

Having worked on both sides of this coin I have seen it from the two points of view.

I worked for 8 years as an estate agency broker and financial services manager for a large chain of estate agencies across the UK. Every day we would be receiving offers from people who had no idea whether they could afford the mortgage, get the mortgage or in some cases didn't even know what a mortgage was. The only complaint I have ever received as a broker was when I told 2 first timebuyers they could not afford the flat on which they had offered. They wanted a mortgage of £100,000 on a part time salary of £4,500 and benefit income. You may laugh at this but this happens every day. Now I am fortunate enough to own and run my own Mortgage Advice Practice and still see this type of thing happening.

Where would the vendor have been left in this situation if I had not checked their situation out? Then it would have been perceived as the estate agents fault when the couple could not proceed possibly weeks down the line?

I do not have a problem with Estate Agents wanting to verify an offer, in fact I think it is fulfilling the duty of care to their clients, the seller, by doing so. When a client of mine wants to offer on a property I always tell them that they should expect the Agency to ask for proof of mortgage ability. This is where I normally either forward the offers for the client or will contact the EA once the offer has been accepted to verify that the mortgage has been agreed. I never disclose figures or amounts, just whether the offer in my opinion is feasable.

This has to date always been well received by both EA and buyers. The EA respects that fact that the buyer has already sorted out the funding for the purchase, and the buyer is happy that I, being independant from any agent, am acting in their best interests. There is no motive not to.

I get contacted every day by First Time Buyers who, understandably, have no idea how the process works, but also fall way short of being able to mortgage to the amount in respect of the properties they have been viewing.

When I have sold properties personally, about 20 in the last 10 years, I have always either myself or via the agency had their offers verified financially before I accept and remove the property from the market.

Look at it from both angles and stop thinking that the world is out to screw you.

Andy

silvercar

I could show an EA my AIP, but it would be for less than half the property value. I could show my current mortgage statement and the agreed price for my current home, but there is still a large gap!

I would be reluctant to show an EA all my savings details and would refuse to show my business accounts - from which a sizeable chuck of the purchase price is coming.

I'm arranging my mortgage directly with the lender, as otherwise I 've got high redemption penalties, so no advisor to represent me.

Does that mean I'm not a good bet?

AndrewSmith

Not at all.

Show them your AIP and tell them that the rest is being funded by cash deposit. That should be more than good enough.

After all, you know the price you are paying, you know how much mortgage you can get so therefore you will know the cash amount needed.

An EA will only ask for proof of liquid funds on occaision when they are told by some buyers that they are paying cash for the property.

The EA will be satisfied that you have your mortgage in place. If you don't have the rest of the cash to complete the purchase, then that's down to you, nothing they or their broker can do about it. See where I am coming from? I am not for a minute insinuating that this is the case just offering some logic behind the process.

Hope this helps

Andy

xela_17

I don't think anyone's saying it's not a good idea for EAs to check out potential buyers but in this case the situation is different: the EA won't even take the offer until the OP goes into the office. This leaves a gap of several days whereby the other EA that is marketing the property could well receive an offer from another buyer, foward it to the vendors and they accept, leaving the OP out in the cold. Surely this isn't right? The OP could lose out on the property because of the EA's actions. Plus, the vendor could lose out on a potential better offer because they don't even know about it! If I was the vendor or the OP I would be very angry with the EA.

mrdee0

Follow-up....

Just to follow up on what happened...
Well i was a bit annoyed that my offer wouldnt even be put forward without me physically going into the EA. But anyway -armed with the information from some of the replies here i prepared to drive to the EA after i finished work inthe afternoon.
Well i had a phonecall inthe morning but i couldnt answer due to a meeting. But i phoned them around 11am and the person who had called me wasnt available so i asked who i should speak to regarding the telephone call i recieved. Well the person asked my name and did some checking and said 'oh i think it was just to confirm the meeting today' So i said fine ill see you later after work.
Drove a long way from my workplace and about 10 minutes before i reach the place my phone rings and i stop to answer. Its the EA..im told that apparently the vendor had already accepted an offer the day before my phonecall when i wanted to put in an offer. So i said why inthe world did the people who worked there didnt know that when i had made my call. She said the persons involved had been out of office and so its been difficult to let people know of the situation.
So i said i had wasted petrol money coming to make an offer in an office when there wasnt really a need for me to come and that i could have made the offer over the phone. She just said sorry and kept repeating 'all i can say im sorry these things happen'.
So i said im sure your clients would like to know how you let things happen-and i put the phone down.

Was quite annoyed with these people. Ive seen two other property's marketed by these people. I know both houses are tenanted at the moment and so its difficult to arrange a viewing without going through them. Im interested inthe houses but im put off by the EA- since these two houses are tenanted i dont know how else to make an offer to the owner as no way of contacting him.
Anyway thats the story so far!

Cristy

Sorry they've put you through this crap. We've had a shocking experience with them overall, it's been ineptitude and idiocy all the way. In hindsight I'd say avoid, avoid, avoid. It's practically a fluke we were able to complete!

Jorgan_2

mrdee0 wrote:

But he made it appear that id be coming in to make an offer to them-and then he said to be rest assured the property wont be sold before my appointment. Then he asked that i bring in payslip, id etc

Sorry to here you had been messed around, was the property sold by the agent you were dealing with or the second agent involved?

Getting hold of the vendors will be difficult in a tenanted property, even if the property is occupied by the seller, the seller may not want direct contact with a buyer, everyone is different.

mrdee0

It was sold by pommells-who knows what stories they might have been feeding the vendor!
But nevermind plenty more fishes inthe sea-its a matter of keeping a good positive attitude and keep on the lookout all the time. Ive come to realise its very similar to finding a job-you have to do a lot of research and then fill out the application form and then attend the interview. And you spend some time daily to look at all the websites/property pages and making phonecalls.